A trio of warships christened Royal Oak, named after the legendary "royal oak" -
a hollowed out tree which offered King Charles II a safe hiding place from his
pursuers - lent their distinctive name in 1972 to an equally distinctive luxury
sports watch - the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet. Since then, the Royal Oak has
become the leading model of the world-famous firm in Le Brassus and helped the
stainless steel wristwatch attain respectability among watch lovers around the
world.

The Audemars Piguet story begins in 1875 when twenty three year
old watchmaker Jules Audemars and future partner Edward-August Piguet, just
twenty-one years of age, met in the Vallee de Joux. Both had learned the
watchmaker's trade after finishing public school in their hometown of Le Brassus
by training at the bench and returned to the Vallee de Joux to find jobs in the
local watchmaking industry. Jules Audemars was soon producing raw components for
watch movements, while Edward-August Piguet sought employment as a "repasseur"
(a master watchmaker who performs the final regulation on a watch). Shortly
after their meeting in 1875, the two talented watchmakers decided to join forces
and founded the firm that would someday come to be known as Audemars, Piguet et
Cie.

Almost from the beginning, Audemars was in charge of production and
the technical side, while his partner Piguet focused on sales. Their partnership
was not an immediate success, however. In fact, the Audemars Piguet trademark
was not even registered until 1882 and the firm's "official founding" did not
take place until 1889. Already, however, Audemars Piguet et Cie had become the
third largest employer for watch manufacturing in the Canton of Vaud. More
importantly perhaps, both men had deliberately shifted their focus towards the
production of high-quality, complex, ultra-precise watches.

Shortly
after the official founding in 1889, a branch office was built in Geneva and the
partners decided to produce all of their components and assemble the finished
watches in-house. This allowed the firm to maintain strict quality control over
their products and as a result, only products of the highest quality left the
workshop. In short order, the greatest, most renowned retail jewelers were
ordering watches from Le Brassus. Today, one can find many Audemars Piguet
pocket watches identifiable as an Audemars Piguet only by their serial number,
the result of prestigious jewelers, such as Gubelin and Tiffany & Co.,
wanting only their own name engraved on the movement and case, and not that of
Audemars Piguet.

It is interesting to note that between 1894 and 1899, a
mere 1,208 watches were produced. Among these were some of the most
sophisticated timepieces ever made, including the legendary "Grande
Complication" series, which is still being produced today. Aside from normal
time indication, a Grande Complication timepiece offers minute repetition,
perpetual calendar, and chronograph.

At around this same time, the
retail operations in Geneva and London were transformed into full-service
branches where watches were not only serviced but also assembled. By 1914,
Audemars Piguet launched a project to develop a watch so complicated that it
would take six years of continuous production before the watch could be
delivered to the importers Guignard & Golay in London.

The watch in
question was a pocket watch with two dials and a one-minute tourbillon
mechanism. As well as a tourbillon, this double dial Lepine, gold watch included
a minute repeater, a chronograph with 60-minute and 12-hour counters, perpetual
calendar with displays which "jump" at midnight, display of the leap year cycle,
the "age" and phases of the moon, and power reserve display. The second face
showed an additional 24 hours based on the sidereal hour, moving a pair of
independent hands. A special system connected to this gear-train makes it
possible to see the changes in the London sky at any time of the day or night,
through an oval-shaped opening in the rear dial. The sky is represented by 315
stars engraved on a plate of gold, enameled in blue. The stars, with their
respective names, are all clearly visible.

Unfortunately, it was the
last triumph for the founding partners. Audemars died in 1918. The following
year, so did Edward Piguet.

After the founders' death, Audemars Piguet
continued to prosper, establishing several technical milestones with the
creation of the world's smallest minute repeater watch, having a diameter of
just 15.8 millimeters; the debut of a Hunter Model (hinged-lid pocket watch)
with a jumping second hand, also featuring a barometer, quarter repeater,
independent second hand, the date and day of the week; and in 1925, another
first: the world's thinnest pocket watch measuring just 1.32 millimeters. The
year 1928 also saw the development of the world's first skeletonized
pocketwatch.

Needless to say, then as now, Audemars Piguet was
considered one of the finest watch manufacturers in the world. Business boomed,
as did the world economy. Customers of Audemars Piguet included such prestigious
jewelers as Gubelin, Tiffany & Co., Cartier and Bulgari. Unfortunately, the
company's success ground to a shocking halt in 1929 when only 737 watches were
sold. By contrast, nearly 2,000 watches had been sold in 1920. With the stock
market crash in 1929 and the subsequent Depression, there were suddenly very few
customers for expensive watches. Like other Swiss watch companies, Audemars
Piguet was forced to layoff most of its workforce, until hitting rock bottom in
1932, when just two watches were produced.

Despite the hard times, the
company bounced back following World War II, thanks to the success of its
chronographs and ultra-thin (the famous nine-ligne calibre 2003) dress watches.

The 1950's and 1960's saw a major rebound in the firm's sales. In 1967,
in cooperation with Jaeger LeCoultre, a new record for the thinnest (2.45 mm)
automatic movement, with a centrally placed rotor of 21-carat gold, was
established. Just three years later, in 1970, the watchmakers of Audemars Piguet
premiered the world's thinnest movement (3.05 mm) to include date display and a
central rotor made of gold. The year 1972, of course, marked the debut of what
has become the signature model for Audemars Piguet, the "Royal Oak".

Designed by the legendary watchmaker Gerald Genta, its octagonal shape,
steel edges and the use of prominent hexagonal screws as a design feature strike
a perfect balance between power and elegance. Worthy of its name, the Royal Oak
has since become a legend. Its octagonal design, originally produced only in
high-grade steel, took the breath away even of many professionals. However, when
the Royal Oak was unveiled at the 1972 European watchmaking fair in Basel with a
price tag of just 3,300 SFr. -- unheard of for a watch bearing the Audemars
Piguet name -- its success was beyond even its creators' expectations!

In 1993, the company museum, housed in the original workshop of Jules
Audemars and Edward Piguet, was established. This museum, a tribute to the
company's visionary founders, allows watch enthusiasts to discover Audemars
Piguet technology "from A to Z." Its exhibits retrace the key stages in the
company's history, and show many of the creations that made Audemars Piguet
famous, including the Grande Complication. As well as its unique collection of
antique watches, and in particular of watch complications, this very unusual
museum enables visitors to see the intricacy and precision required in horology,
by observing two master watchmakers at work in the modern Audemars Piguet
atelier which is a permanent feature of the museum.

That same year, a
new model in the Royal Oak collection premiered: the Royal Oak Offshore, which
is water resistant to a depth of 10 atmospheres. The Offshore model offers
following functions: chronograph to 1/5 second, tachymeter, 30-minute counter,
12-hour counter, date display, seconds display, automatic movement with central
rotor in 21-carat gold.

Three years later, in 1996, a wristwatch version
of the famous "Grand Complication" premiered at Basel. More than 600 components
are contained in an integrated movement that does not exceed 8.5 mm in height.
It is a technical marvel that marries old-fashioned craftsmanship with
cutting-edge technology, such as computer-aided design (CAD). It was also in
1996 that Audemars Piguet embarked on a new era, becoming one of the first major
watch companies to represent itself on the Internet with its official Web site.

Today, Audemars Piguet remains one of the most prestigious watchmakers
in the world -- yet despite the company's enormous success (AP even owns 40% of
Jaeger-LeCoultre), every watch is still made by hand the old-fashioned way - one
at a time. Today, along with Patek Philippe (PP) and Vacheron Constantin (VC),
AP is considered to be one of the "big-three" as one of the finest watches in
the world

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